How to transfer photos and retain timestamp data?

Hi, I'm trying to restore my phone (or "reformat" if you may) so I'm trying to
(1) Back-up my photos to my PC
(2) Reformat phone
(3) Restore photos from PC back to phone.

Currently, it seems that
(1) Backing up photos to the PC changes the date creation date but keeps the date modified and EXIF data
(2) Restoring the photos from PC back to phone changes the EXIF data and date modified, making the date modified the last known date of transfer

What can I do to resolve this? What can I do for files already affected?

Thank you